Robert Kubica voted 2008 F1 driver of the year by F1 Fanatic readers
28th November 2008, 13:00 by Keith Collantine 30 Comments »
Robert Kubica voted best F1 driver of 2008 on F1 Fanatic
Over 1,400 of you voted in the poll to decide the best Formula 1 driver of 2008.
World champion Lewis Hamilton led the voting early on but it was Robert Kubica who came out on top with 40% of the vote. Here are the results in full.
F1 Fanatic driver of the year 2008 voting (click to enlarge)
Robert Kubica grabbed 556 votes – one of which was mine – putting him comfortably ahead of Fernando Alonso (316) and Lewis Hamilton (245).
Felipe Massa got 11% of the vote despite missing out on the title by a single point in a year when he suffered a lot of bad luck. Italian Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel took 70 votes – 45 more than 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Among the minority votes Anthony Davidson led the way with seven, Nick Heidfeld had six and Sebastien Bourdais five. Only two drivers received zero votes: Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella. Full breakdown of results here.
With a little help from his friends…
Earlier this year we did a poll on who was the most popular driver which Kubica won by miles thanks to a huge influx of fans from Polish websites.
There was above average levels of traffic from Poland here in the past week, though not to the enormous extent there was during the popularity poll. By no means have all the Polish visitors been voting for Kubica (here’s proof of that), but it certainly played a role in shaping the results.
Read more
NB. John Spencer posted an excellent analysis of my 2008 driver rankings which, due to a problem with the spam filter, failed to appear on the site for several days. Apologies to John, do check out his thorough breakdown of the stats here.
Kubica finished fourth in the championship behind Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen
John Spencer said on 28th November 2008, 14:13
Keith – maybe your spam filter objected to me calling you a complete ranker.
As for the results – I think this site is now f1fanatyk.pl
Patrickl said on 28th November 2008, 14:44
Still, even if only a few hundred polish fans came here they completely warped the statistics.
Keith Collantine said on 28th November 2008, 15:23
John – It’s over-sensitive to links in text, which is annoying.
Patrickl – Perhaps, but there’s nothing stopping Alonso or Hamilton’s fans from doing likewise. I’m not saying that’s desirable, but I do find it curious that so many of Kubica’s fans choose to seek out sites where they can vote for him in polls, but other drivers’ fans don’t. Maybe it’ll wear off over time?
I also think we shouldn’t rule out the possibility that some of the Polish traffic was pro-Alonso: it was when we did the ‘popularity’ vote.
Derek said on 28th November 2008, 16:02
There’s never been a Polish F1 driver before, certainly not at his level. So let them make the most of it!!
Milos said on 28th November 2008, 18:21
interesting. my poll is still running and there it looks like head to head between Alonso and Hamilton
me myself have hard time choosing between Alonso and Kubica but had to choose one and my vote went for the Spanish driver
I would really like to see these 2 racing each other in more less equal cars
Keith Collantine said on 28th November 2008, 18:31
Milos: your wish is my command – Alonso vs Kubica in karts (Video)
Patrickl said on 28th November 2008, 18:48
Though at 90% Kubica vs 10% Alonso.
Toby said on 28th November 2008, 22:32
Why can’t non-Poles vote for Kubica? I didn’t realise this was an assumed partisan/popularity contest. Doesn’t driver of the year mean choosing the guy who did the best job, regardless of machinery or team? Kubica’s not a bad choice, even though I didn’t vote for him. I’m sure he collected plenty of votes from people who aren’t Polish.
John Spencer, which country are you from, and who did you vote for? I voted for Barrichello (for reasons above), and I’m from Australia.
koper said on 29th November 2008, 1:28
I am Polish, however I didn’t vote. Somehow I missed it.
I noticed that in our “network society” works something like asking friends for giving votes and they usually do it. In practice it seems to be like lots of people participate in polls not even knowing what everything is about.
I don’t know whether it happened this time. Despite the fact that the poll could be farce I think Robert Kubica deserves to be the best driver of 2008.
nicho said on 29th November 2008, 3:11
I’m from Poland & I always vote for Kubica but I’m not a one click visitor or guest but a reader of this fan(t)a(s)tic blog
Loki said on 29th November 2008, 4:04
Kubica was my choice, despite Alonso being my favourite driver (and despite me being a Ferrari supporter).
And it’s actually been a good ice-breaker with the number of Polish emigrating to the UK, and whether they see other Poles in the UK as good or not. It’s provided excellent banter for those for, and against, the almighty Kubica. It’s got Poles interested in a sport that may not have introduced interest, and for that alone, I thank Mr Kubica.
As Alonso has done for Spain, Kubica is a promising prospect for Poland.
And I only hope that more countries: India; America; and China mainly at the moment, will produce more.
I’m not a nationalistic person at all, I don’t care who’s who from where, but a lot of fans do place emphasis on where their support goes to – e.g. Alonso, and Hamilton – but I want the sport to flourish on an international basis (much more so than football!)
v8 said on 29th November 2008, 4:17
******** we all know hamilton is the best…
jaG said on 29th November 2008, 9:48
Kubica did the best job in tha whole season, having a poor car and increasingly bad teamwork
Johny said on 29th November 2008, 11:59
He is the best
muffdiver said on 29th November 2008, 12:05
i dont give a rat ass who voted for who, give kubica good car and team behind him